pages

Thursday, November 21, 2013

reclamation of identity.

Dave Eggers founded Voice of Witness, an innovative nonprofit that records the narratives of those who've survived some of the most harrowing experiences on earth.Voice of Witness was awarded the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for Social Progress on November 20, 2013 in Washington, DC.Excerpt from December 2013 Smithsonian Magazine article Upending the Narrative of the Great Man of History:“So many people have had their narratives taken from them, or been called prisoner, guilty, slave, illegal—all of these different terms where people feel like their identity isn't under their control,” says Eggers. He found a model for his work in journalist Studs Terkel, who got his start as a writer for the Works Progress Administration using oral history to chronicle the lives of Americans during the Depression in Hard Times. “Suddenly being able to tell your story, to have it told expansively—anything you want to include you can include from birth to the present—there’s a reclamation of identity.”I am very proud of the work that Ann and I did to tell her story and create this video.